The Best Social Media Platforms For Business Marketing In 2022
What do you want? High-performing social media marketing! Where will it go? Um.
If finding the best social media platforms for business to business (B2B) marketing has you stumped, look no further. Here’s what your need to know before you post.
A Guide to Social Media For Marketers
Does every business have to be on LinkedIn? What about YouTube? These are questions marketers all over South Africa ask daily.
Let’s face it. Just because “everyone” is on Instagram, it’s not likely that an HVAC ducting factory is going to get much traction.
How to Choose the Right Social Media Platforms for Your Business
Selecting the appropriate social media channels is a form of media planning. It helps to ask the same basic media placement questions when choosing a social media platform.
Audience: What audience does the platforms attract?
- Does this align with your desired audience?
- What frame of mind are users in when they interact on this platform? Would your content make an impression?
Potential reach: How many total users are on the platform? What percentage of this is your target market? What percentage of your audience uses this platform?
- Would your cost per impression be viable?
Distribution: is the platform free, paid or freemium?
Frequency: How often would you need to post to reach your audience successfully? Is this sustainable?
Budget: Don’t forget the costs of content creation, such as copywriting, graphic design, animation, or voice-overs.
- Can you cross-purpose or afford appropriate content?
How do you measure success? Can you set realistic KPIs to measure the efficacy of the medium?
In a nutshell: what are you hoping to achieve, and will this social media platform help you to get there?
The Top 5 Social Media Apps for B2B Marketing
There is one catch: don’t go completely obscure.
You want to be seen on one or two of the most popular Social Networks—a.k.a Giants—to boost your brand visibility.
The good news is that at least one of the top 5 social media platforms will be suitable for your marketing. Let’s take a look.
You’d probably expect Facebook to hold the number one slot, but LinkedIn is by far the most powerful platform for business to business, B2B, marketing.
Pros
- This network holds a concentrated reservoir of skilled professionals interacting on the platform in a (mostly) business frame of mind.
- LinkedIn hosts 250 million active users, all of whom are identifiable by their title (designation and seniority), company, influence (followers) and more.
- LinkedIn users love longer content. So, you can publish articles and longer videos here.
Cons
- LinkedIn wants users to stay on the platform, so outbound links don’t perform well. You’ll need to publish all your content within their ecosystem.
50% of US adults with tertiary education, earning more than $75k, use LinkedIn
Here it is, Facebook holds the monopoly in the social media world. With the most active users, you’re guaranteed to find a hefty portion of your target market here.
Pros
- 2.797 billion active users, the majority of which access FB multiple times daily.
- Almost any type of content — such as text posts, video, infographics, articles, polls — works on this platform.
- You can target by industry or geographic location with relative ease.
Cons
- Engagement may be tough for B2B. Most people use the platform to stay in touch with family and friends.
- Mostly boomers. FB has a bad rep among younger people, who are your now-and-coming decision-makers.
Twitter has arguably been the most consistent performer since its inception in 2006. Its user base has stayed at a stable 395 million (or so) for a few years now. 40% of these users are actively engaged throughout the day.
Pros
- The best medium for holding authentic conversations with your audience. (Provided you’re posting engaging content in a conversational way).
- Particularly well-suited for brands that want to reach a predominantly male audience between 30-60 years old.
- Attracts the most tech-savvy audience of all SM platforms.
Cons
- No set and forget. Twitter is best for real-time information and interaction. Don’t post old news or leave prospects and customers hanging.
- The real-time nature of Twitter has made it a go-to for customer service. Many brands leverage this and do well. But sluggish, non-responsive brands should reconsider.
ICT related businesses stand to gain the most from Twitter!
Instagram is the most likely to win at prom! It’s popular, full of valuable tools, and need we say it—beautiful! This is a visual platform that calls for high-quality content and authentic stories.
Pros
- 1.1 billion active users in 2021, mainly comprising 18 to 35-year-olds.
- Excellent for eCommerce endeavours and influence marketing.
- Highest organic engagement rate.
Cons
- Must have visual content to share.
- You can’t share outbound links in posts.
Instagram stories offer construction and engineering firms a powerful way to share case studies, behind-the-scenes progress and project achievements!
YouTube
If your 2022 marketing strategy doesn’t include YouTube, change it. YouTube is immensely popular, second only to Facebook and growing!
Pros
- 2.291 billion monthly active users.
- Officially the second-largest website next to Google. 81% of adults in the USA claim to use YouTube.
- 48% of survey respondents would share content from YouTube before other SM platforms.
- If you are creating video content for YouTube, you can easily repurpose it for LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and more.
- Massive monetisation opportunities.
Cons
- Need dedicated production resources.
Even though your end goal is sales, don’t publish sales videos. Focus on creating high-quality content that delivers value: solve problems, answer questions, teach and have fun.
87% of businesses now use video as a marketing tool (up from 63% in 2017), and 88% of marketers state video gives them a good ROI according to (up from 63% in 2017), and 88% of marketers state video gives them a good ROI according to wyzowl.com reported by Huble Digital
Making the Most of Social Media
The rewards of social media are evident, provided you use each platform to its maximum potential. Simply “being there” for the sake of it is, frankly, a waste of money.
Outsourcing to a competent team of marketing professionals ensures that each platform performs best.
Feed your sales pipe with qualified sales leads from social media